Rake Carson was born Ryan Jacob Carson, the 22nd day
of the sixth month, Year 3 after the Great Resynchronization, to Henry
and Marietta Carson of Corellia. Raised in a small farm town 80
kilometers outside Coronet, Ryan learned the value of work early,
spending countless hours on his family farm or working for spare credits
on the farms of his neighbors as a hire-on. His father a veteran of the
Clone Wars and his mother a commoner from the metropolis of Coronet, the
Carson's income was, generously speaking, meager. Following in the
footsteps of their father, who had been somewhat of a hero in the
Republic Navy the boys entered military service as soon as they had come
of age, the three of them like many of their fellow Corellians trying
for the prestigious position of fighter pilot.

During training, to Ryan's chagrin, his
classmates began calling him Rake. Though the nickname was simply a play
on words (Ryan jAKE), it stuck. Though Carson hated it at first, he
eventually came to view it more a term of endearment than a jab at his
parents unimaginative method for naming children. For the rest of his
life, he was to be known as "Rake" Carson, and eventually, he even
referred to himself that way.

Rake's two brothers proved to be outstanding
pilots, graduating early from the academy as First Lieutenants, while
Rake found that his skill behind the controls of a spacecraft were
wanting to say the least. He developed his abilities to just below
average through the course of his training, but the Imperial Navy
decided that it would probably cost more to train this young farmer to
fly than it would to put him into service elsewhere. Rake bounced from
school to school, until word of a new, highly secretive unit raised his
attention.

The acceptance standards proved to be far out of
his reach, and Rake dismissed the idea as quickly as it had come. The
day the recruiter came to the base, Rake had become involved in a bar
fight with several Imperial Storm Commandos, putting three of them in
the hospital, two of those in bacta tank. Rake himself was arrested with
minor cuts and bruises, and when he was checked out of the brig, he
found a SpecNav Force commando waiting for him, grinning. Carson was
enrolled in training on the spot with the understanding that to refuse
meant a long career in Kessel.

Rake spent the next six years of his life with
the Special Navy Force, making a living in the secret community,
clearing landing zones ahead of major invasions. The unit had taken
great pride in its first in, last out policy, and through extensive
training and effective combat maneuver, they managed to maintain a
perfect record. Carson had thrived in this field, rising quickly to the
rank of First Lieutenant. With command of a full platoon that operated
autonomously in the field, Rake was essentially the top man in nearly
every operation, with complete executive control and literally, no one
to answer to.

In 24 (after GrS), Rake met the woman of his
dreams. While on leave from the Navy, he went home to Coronet, where he
met and fell in love with one Whitney Jarrett, a waitress at a Spaceport
diner. They spent his entire leave together, and within a month, they
were married. When Rake returned to Imperial service, she had followed
him.

In 26 (after GrS), Rake received his last
assignment as a SpecNav Force commando. Placed on Fest to clear the way
for a landing party of Imperials that were there to suppress the local
rioting, Rake's team moved to the aid of another platoon that had
encountered heavy resistance from a nearby hamlet. The team could
ascertain no visual confirmation of a solid target, and Rake called in
for command confirmation to open fire. Imperial Command confirmed that
the village was a target, and Rake ordered his men to open fire,
effectively leveling the hamlet. The men closed upon the small group of
buildings, and someone reported a contact running away to the front.
Reacting upon training, Rake raised his rifle and felled the target. The
team closed to complete a visual inspection of the target site, and
discovered a single weapon in the hands of an elderly gentleman still
lying in bed. Scattered throughout the town were over three hundred
bodies, mostly women and children. The runner that Rake had shot proved
to be a thirteen year old girl.

After intense debate within the team, Carson
decided to call in the event, upon which the Empire ordered him to
report to his commanding officer. Rake was stripped of everything, and
only his outstanding service record saved him from imprisonment.
Whitney, who had become pregnant six months before the operation, was
crushed by the idea that her husband had knowingly murdered over three
hundred innocent civilians. They fought, and she left him, vowing that
he would never see his child or her again. Three months later, Rake
received word that she had died in childbirth, his baby stillborn.
Crushed, stripped of rank, and emotionally defeated, Rake returned home
to Coronet once more to resume a life of farming, only to find that his
family shunned him as evil. His father told him that he had dishonored
the Carson name, and that his service had proved to him what he had long
believed; his son was a disgrace.

Rake left home, taking up a career as a smuggler.
He used his separations pay to purchase a YT-1300 freighter, and began
smuggling Glitterstim from Nar Shadaa to distant ports that paid well.
He amassed a small profit, which he sent to his family, despite their
shunning him. What he had left over, he used on his ship, gradually
bringing the beast back from the very jaws of the scrap yard.

A year after his departure from service, Rake
learned that his family had taken a stance against the Empire, fueled by
anger at rising taxes, and not the least by Rake's own actions on Fest.
Close friends of the family that Rake still kept in contact with told
him that his father never mentioned his name, and when it was brought up
to him, it inevitably produced a tirade about the evils of the Empire,
and the 'murdering bastard' that his son had become. Throughout the next
three years, Rake's family rose to prominence within the anti-Empire
movement, and their name began to be uttered even in the deep space
regions Rake frequented. In 29 (after GrS), Rake's two brothers went UA
(unauthorized absence, AWOL) from the Imperial Navy, returning home to
help their parents in their drive against the Empire. The Empire's
response was a personal visit, leaving the only remaining family Carson
had burning alive in the locked confines of their own home.

When he received the news, Rake crawled into a
bottle. He became a drunk, amassing a mile-long record of offenses
against the law that included among other things drunk and disorderly,
assault, and murder. For the next six years he bounced from space port
to space port, fighting his internal demons with the aid of cheap
whiskey and frequent fights, and he 'visited' almost every jail in the
galaxies.

In 32 (after GrS), bankrupt both financially and
emotionally, he had absolutely no desire to engage in any cause,
Imperial or Rebellion. He blamed himself, not the Empire for his
family's death, and he felt that it was merely punishment for his
actions on Fest. He took jobs regardless of their political implication,
and his sole motivation was credits. It was then that he received a job
offer from an individual without name or cargo manifest--rather routine,
by this point. Upon delivery, he discovered this man to be Dagon Tong,
leader of the Rebellion's premier commando team in the region. The
delivery was busted up by a squad of storm troopers, and in the ensuing
firefight, Rake's ship was destroyed. Motivated solely by survival and
the desire to get paid, he boarded the commando's vessel, and upon
arrival at Yavin, essentially became marooned. Realizing his only method
of escape was to simply work for the Rebels, he joined on with Tong's
team of commandos, fighting exactly the kind of war he had been trained
for.